Achieving measurable business outcomes from digital finance transformation is a persistent challenge for large enterprises. To address this, Esker, a provider of AI-powered automation for finance, has formed a strategic partnership with global management consultancy Horváth. The alliance aims to bridge the gap between strategy and execution by combining Horváth's operational excellence expertise with Esker's cloud automation technology, helping organizations with complex ERP environments strengthen liquidity and modernize their finance and procurement operations.
Esker, an AI automation provider for finance, has entered a strategic partnership with management consultancy Horváth.
The partnership targets large organizations with complex, fragmented ERP systems seeking to modernize finance and procurement.
The goal is to combine strategic consulting with AI-powered automation to deliver measurable improvements in liquidity and operational performance.
It addresses the industry challenge of aligning digital transformation efforts with concrete business outcomes like working capital optimization.
The focus is on transforming key workflows: sourcing, procurement, accounts payable/receivable, and order management.
The collaboration offers an end-to-end package to achieve process improvements without customer-specific ERP development.
A core driver of this partnership is the recognized disconnect between digital transformation initiatives and their tangible financial results. By integrating Horváth's strategic roadmap and process design capabilities directly with Esker's pre-built AI automation suite, the companies intend to ensure that technology investments directly translate into improved cycle times, enhanced process transparency, and stronger working capital performance.
The partnership specifically targets organizations where standard or fragmented ERP systems hinder automation and AI adoption. Instead of recommending costly and disruptive custom ERP development, the collaboration proposes Esker's cloud platform as a flexible overlay to automate processes end-to-end across these complex environments. Stefan Maus, Partner at Horváth, explained, “Collaborating with Esker allows us to offer clients flexible and pragmatic options to bridge these gaps and achieve faster, more transparent and sustainable process improvements, all without any customer-specific development within the ERP systems themselves.”
The joint value proposition centers on the Office of the CFO and its priorities: cash flow, working capital, and strategic decision-making. Esker's AI Automation Suite targets source-to-pay and order-to-cash cycles, while Horváth provides the strategic context and performance management framework. Claire Valencony, Deputy Chief Revenue Officer at Esker, stated, “By combining Esker’s deep automation expertise with Horváth’s strategic consulting knowledge, we help organizations bridge strategy and execution — driving confident, rapid and measurable transformation in finance and supply chain operations.”
The collaboration will concentrate on transforming critical, high-volume financial workflows that directly impact liquidity. This includes automating and applying AI to processes from sourcing and contract management through to invoice delivery and collections. The companies have already co-authored a white paper on how strategic process design paired with intelligent automation can improve working capital performance, signaling a content-driven approach to engagement.
This partnership reflects a maturation in the digital transformation market, moving from point solution sales to integrated service offerings that promise business outcome assurance. For CFOs and finance leaders grappling with legacy ERP constraints, it presents a path to modernization that emphasizes agility, measurable ROI, and strategic alignment over wholesale system replacement.
About Esker
Esker’s AI Automation Suite for the Office of the CFO leverages the latest in Agentic AI and automation technologies to optimize working capital and cashflow, enhance strategic decision-making, and improve human-to-human relationships with customers, suppliers and employees. Esker’s Source-to-Pay and Order-to-Cash solutions automate any business process while supporting long-term growth strategies. Offering 40+ years of industry knowledge, Esker operates in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific with global headquarters in Lyon, France, and U.S. headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin.
About Horváth
Horváth is an international, independent management consultancy with 1,400 employees across locations in Europe, the United States and other global markets. As a top consultancy for transformation, performance management and digitalization, we lead companies and public organizations to sustainable success and long-term value creation. Horváth represents profound, innovative approaches and solutions - based on our roots and values, shaped by our founder Professor Péter Horváth. Our clients, from executive to specialist level, appreciate our focus on efficiency and effectiveness as well as our trustful cooperation. Horváth has received numerous awards for its outstanding project results and high-level customer satisfaction.
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